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Communism
Communism (Russian коммунизм) is a social-economic system based theoretically on a society that is without classes and without sovereignty. In reality the party is sovereign in Communist countries and Communist officials are the ruling class. It is a branch of socialism that dates from the Industrial and French Revolutions. It is based also on common ownership of the means of production. Communism is the opposite of Capitalism, which guarantees a lower class and upper class. In reality in communist fountries the party can be close to an extreme monopoly capitalist. In a society without greed, a Communist state would not go through authoritarian regimes, capitalism would fail because there is no demand or private ownership. Is such a society possible? Note: NEVER listen to right-wingers who call Liberals communists as an insult. Marxism-Leninism Theoretically, the state was supposed to be temporary, eventually giving way to communism, which would be an anarchistic social order. Therefore the term "Communist state" is a contradiction in terms since under Communism the state is supposed to wither away. In practice the state didn't wither away, the state became totalitarian and enforced inefficient rigid Command economies. This shows that communism doesn't work the way theory suggests. Nations that have adopted Marxism-Leninism as the official ideology of said nations like the Soviet Union can be called Marxist-Leninist states. Again in practice nations where a hash totalitarian state is enforcing a rigid economic system are called Communist states and ordinary people understand the term. Marxists and other Communists Communism can be divided into two broad categories: Marxist communism and non-Marxist communism. Although the dominant forms of communism are variants of Marxism, communism and Marxism are not the same. Marxism is a branch within communism, not all communists are Marxists. There are non-Marxists version of communism like anarchist communism, Christian communism or the new age Fascist-Sharia-Nazi Communism Marxism-Leninism Marxism-Leninism is a variation of both Marxism and Leninism created by Lenin (The devil according to some) a theoretician who led the October Revolution. Lenin theorized the theory of imperialism, the vanguard party, monopoly, Capitalism democratic centralism and many other theories which gained popularity in the Marxist movement following the Bolshevik revolution in the USSR. Theory and reality It may be possible for Marxism-Leninism to create an egalitarian society, however, it has not occurred yet. The dictatorial rule in the USSR may be a result of the rule of Stalin. The former Soviet Union was unable to create an egalitarian society, instead it was actually a totalitarian party dictatorship and rather than workers owning their means of production the state did. The state owned all the important means of production and the state exploited the people the way Monopoly Capitalists do. Marx hypothesized the "dictatorship of the proletariat" would eventually result in a classless society. But in practice tyrannical party dictatorship occurred as experienced in the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and China. Anarchist theorist Bakunin and Marx had disagreement over this. Bakunin predicted "dictatorship of the proletariat" is impossible because the proletariat cannot rule over others, and to benefit the proletariat, the state should be abolished, but Marx did not pay attention to his suggestion. Soviet Union was never classless, it had a bureaucracy who enjoyed greater freedom than the general population called "Nomenclatura". The social in socialism denoted worker control, while common ownership in general is a possible offshoot. State capitalism like in the Soviet Union meant the state owned all land, ran the industries, setting prices, wages, labor conditions and so on. Basically just like one huge corporation. It was state monopoly capitalism in this case, with no internal market, although trade between states occurred. Thus Lenin's New Economic Policy in the early 1920s allowed small-scale private market capitalism, Stalin reversed this, Khrushchev started to implement that and during Brezhnev's time it was well-established in Soviet Union. Perestroika under Gorbachev began private market capitalism again in all sectors. The overall conditions of the working class remain the same in Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union and modern day Russia. A note on propaganda It must be remembered that communism could have easily been tainted with capitalist propaganda. Communism, and communist countries, could easily been demonized by the American and capitalist media. This is also true for other political systems, countries, and the leaders of them, that take an anti-American or anti-capitalist stance, such as with Hugo Chavez. In capitalist countries such as the United States, it must be remembered that the plutocrats have a strong incentive to make communism and communists look as horrible as possible. This will turn the general populace off from communism. If there were to be a communist revolution in a capitalist country such as the United States, the plutocrats would be under great threat. Presenting communism in a bad light prevents a revolution that would threaten their power from occurring. Common Ownership One of the central ideas to communism is that the capital produced by an enterprise or company is not owned by the members of the company but invisibly. This is opposed to capitalism, wherein the members of the company do what they wish with capital. This leads to large companies collapsing suddenly, having large liquidity problems, and most or all of its members are laid off. Common ownership, however, avoids such pitfalls because it does not exploit workers at least not officially, and theoretically commonly owned capital would be applied to good use through reason. Unfortunately the bad side to guaranteed employment is that workers keep their jobs despite being incompetent or irresponsible. State capitalism in Communist countries did and does exploit workers whose labour provided high living standards for the party elite. Common ownership historically Common ownership has surfaced many times in Western civilization before the rise of Marxism. The Spartacus slave revolt in ancient Rome was based on this, and many medieval church systems commonly owned their land and revenue. Russia, later Soviet Union, was the first country to adapt Communism in its politics. It should be noted that though Spartacus failed, many people did stand up for him. And churches are still around today, though only very few practise common ownership. How far Common ownership works Common ownership of parts of an economy works. All developed economies are mixed economies. That includes the economy of the United States. Common ownership of a whole economy has never worked in practice. Marxist schools Note: These are social and economic theories. There is no reason to assume any of the theories below are true. Marxism Karl Marx envisioned modern communism and his writings were adapted by Vladimir Lenin when he overthrew the Russian Tsars during the Russian Revolution. Russia operated on Marxist-Leninist communism through Stalin and up until the end of the Cold War. Beliefs Marxism is based on these tenets: * that capitalism exploits workers by the owners of the capital * that people's consciousness of the condition of their lives is based on materials and relations * social classes are based on relationships in production * that material conditions and social relations are historically malleable * in history, the conflicts between classes with different interests drive change and structure historical periods Exploitation Marx believed that capitalism was the exploitation of one class by another. In other words, it works on the basis of paying the worker less than the full value of their labor, in an effort to turn a profit. The profit is not moderated based on risk versus reward. Alienation Marx refers to the alienation of people from aspects of their "human nature." He believes that alienation is a systematic result of capitalism. Under capitalism, the fruits of production belong to the employers, who expropriate the surplus created by others and in so doing generate alienated labour. Alienation describes objective features of a person's situation in capitalism - it isn't necessary for them to believe or feel that they are alienated. Base and superstructure This is the idea that all the relations among people with regard to “the social production of their existence” forms the economic basis, on which arises a superstructure of political and legal institutions. To the base corresponds religion, philosophy, and other main ideas of society. Class consciousness The idea that a social class must possess this awareness of itself and the world around it in order to mount a successful revolution of sociality. A revolution like the one Ralph Nader wants to happen to America. Ideology Because the ruling class controls the society's means of production, the superstructure of society, as well as its ruling ideas, will be determined according to what is in the ruling class's best interests. }} Historical materialism An idea that looks for the causes of developments and changes in human societies, in the way that humans as a whole make the means to life, giving an emphasis, through economic analysis, to everything that co-exists with the economic base of society (e.g. social classes, political structures, ideologies), like the rest of the beliefs. Political economy Political economy studies the means of production, specifically capital, and how this manifests itself in economic activity. Marx's theory of history Marx had a very interesting interpretation of history, past, present and yet to come (probably coming from the "when history was written, the last page will say" Bushist philosophy). He thought that all history had, has and will have a timeline based on classes. The Marxist theory of historical materialism understands society as fundamentally determined by the material conditions at any given time - this means the relationships which people enter into with one another in order to fulfill their basic needs, for instance to feed and clothe themselves and their families. In general Marx and Engels identified five (and one transitional) successive stages of the development of these material conditions in the Western Bloc. # Primitive Socialism: as seen in cooperative tribal societies. Primitive conservatives secretly hide fake WMDs underneath large rocks as security in case future conservatives need an emergency excuse for an invasion to protect oil imports. # Slave Society: which develops when the tribe becomes a city-state. Aristocracy is born. Conservatives own slaves. # Feudalism: aristocracy is the ruling class. Merchants develop into capitalists. # Capitalism: capitalists are the ruling class, who create and employ the true working class. The rise of the Liberals. # Socialism: workers gain class consciousness, overthrow the capitalists and take control over the state. Neocons finally defeated! # Communism: a classless and stateless society. Al Gore shall lead the liberal nation to glorious empire upon the moon! Well we're just a little ironical here but we're sure you're smart enough to see that. Maoism Maoism is a variant of Communism derived from the teachings of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong. China is currently a form of capitalistic economy/authoritarian government. }} Mao Zedong Thought has always been the preferred term by the Communist Party of China and the word Maoism has rarely been used in the English language except pejoratively. Likewise, Maoist groups outside China only began to call themselves Maoist after the death of the man himself, a reflection of Mao's view that he did not change, but only developed, Marxism-Leninism. Contemporary Maoist groups, believing Mao's theories to have been sufficiently substantial additions to the basics of Marxism, have since the 1980s called themselves "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist," "Revolutionary Communist" or simply "Maoist." According to Glenn Beck the current president of America is a Maoist. In China Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, and the reforms of Deng Xiaoping starting in 1978, the role of Mao's ideology within China has radically changed. Although Mao Zedong Thought nominally remains the state ideology, Deng's admonition to seek truth from facts means that state policies are judged on their practical consequences and the role of ideology in determining policy has been considerably reduced. Deng also separated Mao from Maoism, making it clear that Mao was fallible and hence that the supposed truth of Maoism comes from observing social consequences rather than by using Mao's quotations as holy writ, as was done in Mao's lifetime. In Cuba Fidel Castro led a revolution in Cuba and installed himself as a dictator, and banished the nation to communism. However, like the Russians before him, he became a fascist, and started abusing human rights. No pattern can be discerned at this time. Trotskyism Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist. His politics differed sharply from those of Josef Stalin, most importantly in declaring the need for an international revolution (rather than socialism in one country) and unwavering support for a true dictatorship of the working class based on democratic principles. See Neocons? Trotsky thought Communism can work with Democracy! Trotsky was, together with Vladimir Lenin, the most important and well-known leader of the Russian Revolution and the international Communist movement in 1917 and the following years. Nowadays, numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist, although they have developed Trotsky's ideas in different ways. A follower of Trotskyist ideas is usually called a "Trotskyist." Although Trotsky is generally portrayed positively, he suppressed the Kronstadt rebellion. This action was criticized by anarchist philosopher Emma Goldman who later wrote a book My Disillusionment with Russia. Trotskyists in Capitalist countries frequently set out to make conditions worse for ordinary people because they want people to become desperate and to start a revolution. Definition Trotskyism can be distinguished from other Marxist theories by four key elements: *Support for the strategy of permanent revolution *Criticism of the post-1924 leadership of the Soviet Union, analysis of its features and after 1933, support for political revolution in the Soviet Union and in what Trotskyists term the deformed workers' states; *Support for social revolution in the advanced capitalist countries through working class mass action; *support for working-class internationalism. Movement In 1938, Trotsky and the organisations that supported his outlook established the Fourth International. He said that only the Fourth International, basing itself on Lenin's theory of the vanguard party, could lead the world revolution, and that it would need to be built in opposition to both the capitalists and the Stalinists. Trotskyists want people to join them. They believe they will accomplish revolution and overthrow fat rich white supremacist capitalist Republican conservative fascist statist imperialist Stalinist neocon warmongering rights-violating hatemongering fearmongering racist prodigal antisocialist scaremongering toadish McCarthyist ruling class that is leading the world to the cliff of oblivion! Yes they believe all that. Stalinism and the Soviet Union More on this topic in the article on "Josef Stalin, section "Stalinist repressions"" After Lenin, the leader was Josef Stalin, who sought to fulfill his predecessor's principles of Marxism and started massive collectivization and industrialization programs in the Soviet Union. As he said in 1931, We are 50 or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it, or they will crush us."The Tasks of Economic Executives", February 4, 1931, http://marx2mao.com/Stalin/TEE31.html (Ten years later, in 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the part of World War II known as the "Great Patriotic War".) These programs, as a result, led to a great famine in the 1930s which affected many regions, especialy Ukraine. Nowadays Ukrainians consider it to be an engineered genocide; while this is debated among historians, many countries recognize the events as genocide. There are different estimates of how many people were otherwise repressed by Josef Stalin, mostly differing on what exactly is being "repressed". Depending on the definition, one can put the amount at 4 million people or 40 million. Stalin is the reason why a lot of people are afraid of communism today. It had only begun with Lenin, but when Stalin took over, well, he built walls around the edge of the Empire with armed guards ordered to shoot anyone trying to escape. And people still tried to escape. Conservapedia's view on Stalinism According to Conservapedia, Ronald Reagan personally slayed Stalin. With his bare hands. Eurocommunism Eurocommunism is the word that describes more moderate, reformist communist parties in Europe. These parties did not support the Soviet Union and denounced its inhumane policies. Such parties were politically active and significant in Italy, France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. Non-Marxist schools of thought Non-Marxist versions of communism are anarchist communism and Christian communism. The collapse of the Soviet Union gave the opportunity for non-Marxist version of communism to grow and becoming influential. They do not agree with Marxists. Anarchist communism rejects the Marxists theory of "Directorship of Proletariat" as authoritarian and oppressive. Results of communism As of now, the largest Communist nations have either ceased to exist, or performed market reforms, turning to capitalism. While those in the West Europe or America mostly associated communism with the ruthless totalitarian regimes of Mao or Stalin, or the constant fear of them striking against the West during the Cold War -- and there is certainly a lot of truth to that -- those who actually lived in the Communist nations still (mostly) remember these as the "good times" -- and for some good reasons, too. Those living in Communist nations (at least those who weren't persecuted) enjoyed a much greater economical and social stability -- unemployment and poverty were close to zero, and everyone had a right to receive free quality education and health care. After the communist nations crumbled, their economics weren't prepared for a sudden switch to a free market system -- which resulted in salaries dropping, unemployment rates skyrocketing and many social programs getting canceled. While most of these nations have successfully recovered from that, smaller ones (for example, Ukraine) haven't yet reached the GDP per capita from the Communist era. Morbism Is a system wherein the country is divided into regions, based on population density. Each region is then tasked with supplying adequate food to each citizen. All extra food (or any other basic essential items) are then either; A.) Stored for future use, or B.) Given to other regions in need. Each citizen performs a task of their choosing, and for every hour worked, regardless of position, achieves one "token" that can be used to purchase an item. Citizens can also start a "company" that serves no monetary purpose, as "tokens" are one use only- after buying an item, they are recycled for paper. This system thus eliminates all chance for corruption (well, mostly) by creating a "closed circuit economy", meaning that the government doesn't take from the people, but rather it (the economy) is contained entirely within the government. (Government positions best jobs, by the way require several years of manual labor {gitty jobs}). See also *Collectivism *The Good, The Bad and The OTT *Capitalism External Links *Oppressive and grey? No, growing up under communism was the happiest time of my life *Hungary and the great myth of 1989 *Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism C Category:Things Sarah Palin Will Never Know Category:Communists Category:Europe Category:European History Category:Eastern Bloc